Arifureta: From Commonplace to World's Strongest Vol. 6 Page 5

  “By the princess, do you mean Liliana?”

  “Yeah. Apparently she saw you get taken. She couldn’t tell Amanogawa or the others because she was worried they were under surveillance, so she slipped out of the castle to try and find us.”

  “So it was Liliana-san... You agreed to help her?”

  “I guess. This is partly my fault, after all. I know you probably didn’t want to see my face again, but... you’ll just have to deal with it until we meet up with the others.” Hajime smiled awkwardly, then shattered the bracelet sealing Aiko’s mana and stood up.

  He probably thinks that because of what happened with Shimizu-kun. Aiko grabbed on to Hajime’s arm. Then, she looked directly into Hajime’s eyes and told him her true feelings regarding the incident.

  “I would never wish for something like that. I’m truly happy you came here to save me. It’s true that I still haven’t come to terms with what happened to Shimizu-kun... Honestly, I doubt I ever really will... Still, I’d like to think... that I at least understand why you pulled the trigger. I don’t hate you for it, or bear any sort of grudge.”

  “Sensei...”

  Aiko smiled, her gaze holding equal parts kindness and sadness.

  “I was unable to tell you back then, so I’d like to tell you now. Thank you so much for saving my life. And I’m sorry I forced you to kill a classmate.”

  “......” Looks like you were right, Yue. She figured it out. Hajime smiled bitterly to himself. Regardless of whether or not she’d realized, it didn’t change the fact that Hajime had done something terrible to her.

  “I just did what I wanted to. I’ll accept your thanks, but I don’t need an apology. Anyway, let’s get out of here. The princess should be with Amanogawa and the others right now. We’ll decide what to do next after we’ve all met up.”

  “Very well. Be careful, Nagumo-kun. The Holy Church has branded you a heretic. And it’s possible the person who kidnapped me is...”

  “I know. There’s some stuff I need to do here once I get you to safety, so I’ll probably end up fighting them sooner or later. I came here knowing that.” Hajime nodded, his ironclad resolve evident in his gaze.

  Aiko blushed, but she quickly snapped out of her fantasies. There was one other thing she needed to warn Hajime about. Before she could though, they both heard a loud crash in the distance. The air shook.

  Aiko stiffened and looked up at Hajime. He looked into the distance, his gaze fixed on a certain point. He guessed that the commotion had come from the ground, and telepathically got a report from Yue.

  “Tch, this is some pretty shitty timing... Wait, actually, this might not be that bad.” Hajime clicked his tongue and turned to Aiko.

  Aiko didn’t know Hajime could use telepathy, but after all the artifacts of his she’d seen, she didn’t doubt that he’d done something to find out what happened. She demanded an explanation with her gaze.

  “Sensei, the demons have attacked. That noise was the sound of the capital’s barrier being destroyed.”

  “Demons are attacking!? Doesn’t that mean...”

  “Yeah, Heiligh is under siege. My comrades told me through telepathy. They’ve got a huge army of monsters with them too. They caught the human army totally by surprise.”

  “Impossible.” Aiko paled and shook her head.

  Her shock was understandable. It should have been impossible for the demons to bring an army capable of invading the capital this close to the city without anyone noticing. Moreover, the barrier guarding the capital was nigh invincible. It was unthinkable that the demons had not only shattered the barrier, but had also done it without being spotted.

  “For now, we need to meet up with Amanogawa and the others. We’ll discuss more later.”

  “O-Okay.”

  Hajime scooped Aiko up into his arms and prepared to jump. She squealed and threw her arms around his neck. However, just then, a blinding light rained down from above.

  “Ah!?” It resembled moonlight, just more intense. Hajime’s instincts told him it was dangerous though, and he heeded their warning. Without even a backward glance, he leaped through the hole he’d made. He heard Aiko shriek and cling even tighter to him, but there wasn’t any time to spare for her.

  A second after he leaped out of Aiko’s cell, the silver light blew it to pieces.

  The light made a strange noise as it slammed into the stone wall. It wasn’t the sound of a physical object slamming into rock, nor was it the distinctive hiss of heat melting stone. No, it sounded as if the light had simply dismantled the component parts of the wall. The top of the imposing tower blew away in the wind, its stone turned into particles finer than sand.

  Hajime steadied himself in the air with Aerodynamic and muttered to himself.

  “Was the tower... disintegrated?”

  “Correct, Irregular.” Though he hadn’t been expecting an answer, he got one anyway. The girl who answered him had a voice as pure as a bell’s peal, but it was utterly devoid of emotion.

  Hajime looked up and saw a silver-haired, blue-eyed girl gazing down at him. She was floating above what had been the tower’s summit. Her appearance matched the description Liliana had given of the nun who’d kidnapped Aiko.

  She wasn’t wearing a nun’s habit, though. Instead, there was a helmet on her head, gauntlets on her arms, and greaves over her legs. Over her torso, she wore nothing but a white sleeveless dress.

  There were, however, metal plates covering both sides of her waist. Though it was a bit odd, it was clearly a combat uniform. She resembled one of the Valkyries from Norse mythology.

  She soared into the sky, as if gravity had no hold over her. With the moon framing her silhouette, she turned to face Hajime, a pair of glimmering silver wings unfurling from her back.

  The way they shimmered made it look like they were made entirely of mana.

  Her glorious silver hair fluttered in the breeze. There was a mysterious, otherworldly beauty to her. Unfortunately, her eyes ruined her good looks.

  While everything else about her shone like the moon, her eyes were as cold as ice. There was not even a trace of hatred in them. Only a mechanical, emotionless frigidity. It was as if she was just a doll.

  The girl met Hajime’s sharp gaze and spread her arms wide. Her gauntlets shimmered, and a pair of large, hiltless swords appeared in her hands.

  The two-meter longswords glimmered with the same silvery light as the rest of her. She swung them as if they were weightless, and addressed Hajime in an emotionless voice.

  “I am Noint. An Apostle of God. My duty is to remove unwanted game pieces from my lord’s game board.”

  A clear declaration of war.

  The girl standing before Hajime was a true Apostle of God, sent directly by Ehit himself. So those so-called gods finally decided to get in my way? He’d ruined too much of their fun, so now they were going to eliminate him.

  The air began to tremble as Noint gathered her silver mana.

  Eventually, a wave of pressure crashed down on Hajime and Aiko like a waterfall. Aiko grit her teeth and tried to withstand it, but she was as white as a sheet. The pressure was too much for her. However, just before she fell unconscious, she was surrounded in a veil of crimson mana. Hajime’s aura of mana blocked the wave of pressure Noint exuded.

  Aiko’s eyes snapped open and she looked up at Hajime. Despite the overwhelming pressure, he didn’t seem the least bit cowed. On the contrary, there was a murderous glint in his eyes, and a fearless grin on his face.

  Aiko was captivated by how confident he looked. Hajime stared Noint down and boldly declared his thoughts.

  “I’d like to see you try, God’s Puppet!” Eight thousand meters in the air, far above the skies of the Divine Mountain, God’s Apostle and the monster who crawled out of the abyss clashed.

  A short while before Hajime and Noint’s battle began, Yue, Shea, Kaori, and Liliana snuck into the palace. Liliana was leading them to where Kouki and the others were.

&nb
sp; Yue and the others’ primary goal in the capital was to find the labyrinth hidden within the Divine Mountain and clear it, so normally they would never have bothered helping Liliana meet up with Kouki and assist in solving the kingdom’s problems. In order to ensure Aiko’s safety, though, they needed to make certain Kouki and the others weren’t brainwashed. After all, they were the ones who’d be looking after her once Hajime got her out. Furthermore, the Divine Mountain was the Holy Church’s base of operations. It was where their main temple was located. In order to infiltrate it unnoticed, Hajime would need to get Aiko alone. While they could take on the Holy Church, Hajime and his comrades didn’t want to start an open war with them just yet.

  As there was nothing else for them to do in the capital, Kaori and the others decided to join Liliana as she snuck into the palace.

  Only Tio had remained outside. She was waiting on standby, in case anything happened. Yue had thought it best that at least one person stay somewhere they could have a full grasp of the situation.

  The secret passage that Liliana led the girls through brought them out in an unused guest room. As the last person in line stepped out of the passage, an antique wooden drawer slid over the passage’s entrance, hiding it from view.

  “Everyone will probably be asleep. Let’s start by going to Shizuku’s room,” Liliana whispered quietly to the girls behind her. Her decision spoke volumes about who she trusted the most out of the students. It wasn’t Kouki, who was ostensibly everyone’s hero and leader.

  The girls nodded, and they filed out of the room. Shea, who had the best hearing of the group, took the lead this time.

  Shizuku and the other students’ sleeping quarters were in another wing of the palace, so they had to jog through a number of hallways to get there.

  When they were almost there, there was a massive boom that shook the entire castle. A second later, the sound of shattering glass rang out through the capital. All of the windows in the hallway the girls were standing in blew out, littering the ground with glittering shards.

  “Wawawah, what just happened!?”

  “Don’t tell me...”

  Shea crouched down and nursed her bunny ears. They’d been perked up, listening for even the slightest of sounds, so the deafening boom had hurt pretty bad.

  Behind her, Liliana paled and dashed over to a shattered window. Yue and Kaori followed behind her.

  What Liliana saw confirmed her fears.

  “Impossible... The barrier’s been... destroyed?” She brought a hand to her mouth and gasped.

  The night sky was speckled with a million dots of light. However, most of those weren’t stars, but the remnants of the now-destroyed barrier that covered the capital. There was a brilliant flash of light, and another thunderous roar. A second barrier flared into existence and bore the brunt of the blow. Still, cracks spread across its surface.

  “E-Even the second layer can’t... How did our defenses grow so weak!? At this rate...” The great barrier that protected the capital was actually three separate layers of defenses. Those barriers were created by an artifact held by the palace. Magicians worked day and night to pour mana into it, ensuring that it never waned.

  For centuries, it had stood firm, protecting the capital from invasion. Never before had it been breached. It was one of the main reasons humans had been able to fight evenly against demons.

  And yet it had been destroyed in an instant.

  Not only that, the second layer was nearly gone too. Each successive layer was smaller, but also more powerful. Despite that, it looked like the second layer would be destroyed in a few more seconds.

  The palace burst into an uproar. Hallway lamps were lit and people ran to and fro.

  “Did someone betray us? But if that was the case, they’d only bring a small force... Isn’t that an entire army at our doorstep? What is going on?” While Liliana was muttering to herself, Tio contacted the others.

  “Can you hear me? It’s Tio. Would you like an explanation of what’s happening?” Yue, Shea, and Kaori’s telepathy stones began to glow. Tio’s voice rang out through them. It seemed she’d already grasped the situation outside.

  “Yeah. Thanks, Tio.”

  “Understood. A massive army of monsters has appeared one kilometer south of the capital. The white dragon we fought at the Grand Gruen Volcano is there too. It was that dragon’s breath that demolished the barrier. However, I do not see the demon who controlled it anywhere.”

  “So we’re really under attack? How did a monster army get here without anyone noticing? What were the scouts at the Reisen Gorge doing!?” Liliana screamed hysterically.

  Yue and the others could more or less guess how they’d made it past unnoticed. That demon, Freid Bagwa, had cleared the Grand Gruen Volcano and therefore could use spatial magic.

  Opening a portal large enough to transport an entire army was difficult, but not outside the realm of possibility. At her level of skill, Yue could even do it with some help.

  Only teleportation would have allowed an army of this size to escape the notice of not just the scouts posted at the Reisen Gorge, but the villages and forts along the way to the capital. It was the only method that made sense.

  Seeing as Freid wasn’t riding his white dragon, Yue guessed he must have exhausted himself opening the gate and was currently resting.

  A second later, there was another sound of shattering glass. The second layer had been pierced.

  Liliana urged Yue and the others to keep going. They needed to meet up with Shizuku as soon as possible. However, Yue shook her head.

  “We’ll part ways here. You go on ahead.”

  “B-But why?”

  We need to meet up with the others and set up a final line of defense as soon as possible!

  Yue glared out of the window and spoke clearly.

  “That demon hurt Hajime. I’m going to make him regret being born.” She still held a grudge about that surprise attack. The others took an involuntary step back. Yue rarely displayed her emotions, but right now her voice was burning with rage.

  “Y-You’re really mad, aren’t you Yue-san...?”

  “Aren’t you, Shea? Or did you already forget what he did?”

  “Never. I won’t let him die even if he begs for it.” Shea’s expression grew serious, and the warmth went out of her voice. When it came down to it, she was just as pissed.

  It was rare to see Shea, who was always so cheerful, say something so violent. She, too, held quite the grudge.

  “Which is why, Kaori-san, Lily-san, we’ll be going to teach that oversized lizard and its master a lesson.”

  “Yeah. We’ll take out his army while we’re at it.”

  Before Kaori or Liliana could say anything, Shea and Yue leaped out of the window.

  Poor Freid’s fate was sealed. There was no way he would be able to hold his own against Shea and Yue in an even fight. While the overpowered bunny and her broken vampire companion spelled doom for their enemies, they inadvertently also served as the capital’s saviors.

  At the very least, they would buy time for the humans to regroup, which was why Liliana hadn’t tried harder to get them to stay. A chill breeze wafted through the shattered window, carrying with it the panicked screams of an entire city.

  Liliana and Kaori stood there for a few seconds. After a while, they exchanged glances and resumed jogging toward Shizuku’s room.

  “They really love Nagumo-san, don’t they?”

  “Yep. When they get like that... Well, they’re terrifying. I wouldn’t want to be their enemy.”

  “Kaori... do your best to not die. I’m rooting for you.”

  “I will. Thanks, Lily...”

  Though they were ostensibly helping the humans in this fight, Liliana was sure neither Shea nor Yue actually cared about what happened to the capital. Their sole reason for fighting was Hajime. Inwardly, Liliana despaired a little.

  “Even though I’m the princess... everyone’s just forgetting about me...” />
  Would Lily cry if I told her I kind of wanted to go with them too? Kaori thought absently to herself as she ran.

  The capital was in chaos. People all over the city had come out into the streets to watch the barriers keeping them safe shatter one after another. The city guard was frantically running around, trying to get people back into their homes.

  Some people had already packed their belongings and were trying to flee the city. Yet others had fled to the palace and were banging on its gates, begging to be let in.

  Barely a few minutes had passed so people were still getting up, but there was no doubt that soon there would be riots in the streets.

  The palace didn’t have the manpower to quell them right now, either. Especially since the uproar in the palace was even bigger than the one in the streets.

  That was only natural, though. The kingdom’s top brass had awoken to find out that the demons already had a dagger pressed to the city’s throat.

  They did their best to organize a counterattack, but— Smaaaaash! They didn’t make it in time.

  The final barrier shattered, and the demon army, bolstered with a horde of monsters made from ancient magic, swarmed toward the capital.

  The only protection the city had left were its stone walls. They were sturdily built, but everyone knew they wouldn’t last a second against an army that had taken out their barriers.

  A wave of demons cast their strongest spells at the city walls. Gouts of fire, bolts of lightning, pillars of ice, and clods of earth all slammed into the ramparts. A massive monster the size of a cyclops smashed its mace into what remained.

  At another section of the wall, a massive boar over five meters long rammed into it over and over. Each impact shook the entire length of the wall.

  Up above, a flock of Ash Dragons and black, eagle-like creatures soared over the wall and began attacking the capital proper.

  The soldiers on the wall tried to stem the tide of flying monsters, but there just weren’t enough of them. Moreover, they’d been taken entirely by surprise. It was like trying to stop a tornado with a fan.

  Tio stood atop a tall clock tower that was in the center of the city and surveyed the battle. A few seconds later, Shea and Yue alighted next to her.